String lights are made up of plural lights connected together on a string of electrical wires. The string may typically contain between 35 to 200 lights. String lights are commonly used to decorate Christmas trees, objects and houses during the Christmas season.
String lights are typically sold in flat packages suitable for stacking on retail store shelves. One type of prior art package for string lights utilizes a polystyrene foam tray. One side of the tray has rows of cavities therein for receiving the lights. Channels connect the cavities together, wherein the wires are looped and placed in the channels.
One problem with this type of packaging is wasted space. For example, for a string of miniature lights, the thickest component of the string is the plug and/or control box. The miniature lights themselves are less than one-half the thickness of the plug (or control box). By packaging only a single thickness of lights, much space is left unused. The Christmas tree light business is very competitive. Therefore, any advantage, such as reducing the package size to save on shipping and freight or to make the package more attractive to retailers who have a finite amount of shelf space, would be beneficial. In addition to the problem of wasted space, the foam trays are not recyclable and thus contribute to environmental problems.
Another problem with prior art packaging is the difficulty in testing the lights at the retail store. It is desirable to allow a potential buyer to test the string of lights before buying. This assures the buyer that he has a working set of lights. Testing involves merely removing the plug from the package and connecting it to an electric receptacle. But, many prior art packages make the removal of the plug difficult.
Still another problem with prior art packages is the tendency of the wire to easily tangle. Prior art packages have adjacent lights on the string located adjacent to each other in the package. This requires the wire to be coiled in loops and laid on the tray. The coiled wire has a memory that makes the wire tend to coil and tangle during use of the light string and during repackaging. Further still, because the prior art packages use a complicated arrangement of coiled wire, the original packaging is commonly discarded after removing the lights for the first time. Consumers must find another way to repackage the string for storage after use.